


match in the rain

by illrunwithyou



Series: please don't take my sunshine away [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Crying, Gen, Injury, M/M, Major Injury, Medical Inaccuracies, Missions, Missions Gone Wrong, Misunderstandings, Pain, Regret, Sad, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25926664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illrunwithyou/pseuds/illrunwithyou
Summary: Nico has to leave.------Songfic with Alec Benjamin's Match in the Rain
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: please don't take my sunshine away [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1848148
Comments: 12
Kudos: 26





	match in the rain

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE READ THE TAGS!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE!!
> 
> This is the last part of the series. 
> 
> I hope this is good enough :(( 
> 
> This was my first time writing about relationship, lmao so i hope it wasn't like terrible.
> 
> (Also i changed the name of the series to fit the story)

_**Seems you've been changing lately. I can feel the distance in your touch.** _

“Sorry, Will, I won’t be in the cabin tonight either.” Nico popped in on Will’s shift. 

“Wait- Nico.” Nico stopped in his tracks, peeking his head back into the door at Will’s voice. Will walked over, “You are hanging out with them...again?” Will took his hand, “This is like the fourth day you didn’t come home because you were hanging out with them.” 

“Are you- are you jealous? That I’m hanging out with my friends?” Nico shook off his hand. 

“No, it’s just that…you can’t let your love for your friends go overboard.“

Nico’s eyebrows wrinkled, “You know how much friends mean to me. I’ve never had friends of my own. You know that.” He looked hurt. 

“I’m just saying that you can’t overdo it.” 

“Overdo it? Is that even possible? You are just saying this because you don’t want me to have friends. You just want me to be your little emo boyfriend who needs your help all the time. I can’t believe you, Will.” 

“Wait, Nico-” Nico turned and stomped off without a second look to his boyfriend. Will felt bad that Nico had misunderstood but he stood by his point. They were boyfriends, they weren’t strangers. There was no point for Nico to be standing him up every night. He felt like an accessory, waiting for him every night, worrying about him, only to be dismissed with a couple words and an apology. Of course, Will had forgiven him every time, but the lack of change is convincing Will that they were drifting apart. 

“Will, we need you!” Will sighed, he shot the door one last glance before going to Jonathon.

_**There's two people in this hallway. But there's only one of us that's tryna keep this fire going. Should I just give up? I sense trouble on the horizon. I'm afraid our time is up.** _

“Hey Will. We need to talk.” Nico stuck his head into the Apollo Cabin, where Will sat, reading a book and fiddling with his fingers. 

Nodding, Will stood up and closed his book without a second word. For some reason, Will’s heart was pounding out of his chest at the thought that Nico was going to break up with him. He felt like he couldn’t breath as Nico took him to his own cabin. 

“So?” 

“Um….my friends and I are going to go on a mission for Chiron.” 

Will honestly didn’t know what he had expected, but he didn’t think this was much better. “And?” 

“And….we have to leave for a week to complete this mission.” 

“What is it for?” 

“Tracking down some group of monsters that has been causing trouble.” 

“Can I join?” Nico shook his head, that was enough of an answer for Will. Will felt angry. He wanted to get angry, but he knew from experience that that wasn’t how to get Nico to open up. 

“Wait, we are missing the point.” Will took Nico’s hands. Nico looked down, away from his boyfriend’s eyes. 

“When are you leaving?” 

“Tomorrow morning.” 

_**The clouds are rolling in, I feel you drifting away. And though my intuition tells me that it's too late. That in these conditions, tryin' to bring back the flame is like Tryin' to light a match in the rain** _

“Tomorrow morning?! Why didn't you talk to me before?” 

“Why would I talk to you? You would never support me going.” Nico yanked his hands from his boyfriend’s grip. He suddenly felt suffocated, air suddenly blocking his throat. 

“Of course I wouldn’t! Do you know how dangerous it will be out there?” Will was waving his arms in the air, frantically. Screw being calm and nice with him, that wasn’t working. 

“Of course I do! Stop treating me like a little kid!” 

“Not if you keep making poor choices!”

“You know what? I was wondering whether or not I should tell you and all my friends kept saying to not tell you. You would never understand.” 

“Oh so now your new friends know so much about me?” 

“Well clearly they know you more than you know me!”

“We haven’t _been_ together for days!”

“Oh so suddenly you don’t know what I am like just because I wasn’t with you for a couple days? Well I think you should grow up! We can’t be together 24/7. We have our own lives!” Nico was starting to tear up and he was cursing at himself, forcing himself to swallow his angry tears. 

“Yeah but we haven’t seen each other for _so long_. All you do now and all you talk about now are your new friends. Do you even love me anymore?”

Nico took a step back, letting his angry tears flow.. “How could you say that?” 

There was no slowing Will down now. “How could I say what? Say that you don’t love me anymore after you have been ignoring me, after you keep making me stay up late at night for you, after you don’t give me more than glance but laugh with your friends the second after?” 

Nico gasped, unable to speak. He stared at the ground and the way the tears were dripping on the ground by his beat up sneakers. 

Will took that opportunity to step forward, “Are your friends really that important?” 

“Yes!” Nico more or less yelled, tears burning against his cheeks as they flowed, “I am a son of _Hades_. No one has ever wanted to be my friend. I am that kid who always gets bullied, the one who is hated, the one who is the one who everyone laughs at. And for a good reason too, I am a child of death. I raise skeletons, I am a monster. I don’t get the luxury of friends. These-” Nico could see Will’s eyes soften as they met his and Will reaching out to take a hand but Nico turned away, back against him, “-people were the only ones who have willingly become my friends. They actually care about who I am, and not just that I helped save the world, but me.” 

“You know that I don’t care that you are the son of Hades? That I love you for who you are because Nico di Angelo is incredible.” Will moved as if to embrace Nico, but Nico pulled away, staring at him with shiny eyes and undried tear tracks. 

“Well you should. You spend all your life, all your waking hours in the infirmary, just to fight off death, give everyone more time to live. You should be hating me, you should despise me. I am the son of your mortal enemy. You should just leave me like everyone else has.” Nico made his way to the door, only to be stopped by Will’s hand on his arm. 

“Sunshine, please don’t say that.” 

“I’m not your sunshine.” Nico shook off his hand and left. Will stared at that hand for hours on end. That night, he let himself cry.

_**I still want to make you love me, make you love me again. Even though my intuition tells me that it's the end. That in these conditions, tryin' to bring back the flame is like tryin' to light a match in the rain.**_

Will let out a tired sigh as he spun into his chair after his shift, hand on the bridge of his nose, trying to massage away the headache. 

He was still thinking about the fight. He didn’t regret what he said. He had a right to be angry and think that Nico was falling out of love. Nico was pushing him away. It was so drastic that there was no other reason for it. He knew what he had wanted to say and he said it. The only problem was that the way he said it, accusingly, angry, words laced with emotion, hot-headed, basically insane. He could’ve said it softer, calmer, and approached him gently, building up to the question, like trying to get a turtle out of its shell. He had let his warm flame turn into a fiery flame with no remorse. 

Will buried his head in his hands. He just wanted to apologize, ask for forgiveness, talk out their future together. Anger was not the solution to anything. 

Will took a deep breath, and stood up.

\--------

Nico plopped onto the dirt around the mini campfire that they had built. Some of them had packed food, stuff that was easily disposable or easily cooked. Nico hadn’t. He had forgotten it as he hurriedly packed away his clothes, wiping away the tears that sneaked down his cheeks. He was unprepared. And as Will had pointed out during their fight, he was unprepared as always. 

Will. He shouldn’t have yelled at him, shouldn’t have gotten defensive. It had hurt so much that the one who said would love him to the ends of the world had accused him of that. Being out of love? Nico was just trying to give him space. He had been so stressed lately at the infirmary he thought he needed some time to cool his head so he chose to hang out with his friends. 

Nico took in a shaky breath as he smoothed back his hair. He just had to yell his worst insecurities to Will when he could do nothing about it. This was all his fault. He needs to apologize to Will, to ask him for another chance to explain himself. And maybe, just maybe, Will would take him back. 

He stood up suddenly, startling his friends who had just finished cooking their food. He laughed a little, sitting back down.

_**Yeah, I can taste it, it's the end. This love's impossible to save. Though you embrace it, I can't face it, So I look the other way.** _

“Nico, wake up!” Henry was shaking his arm as Oliver was waking up a groaning Lucas, “We found the monsters!” 

Sure enough, there they were. Ugly creatures, seven feet tall, nine legs with only a horrendously long nail protruding, tiny wings and tails that were placed in odd places and seemed unfunctional, dark blue with bright orange horns sticking out of their heads. Nico snorted, those sure would make a statement as they were impaled into his body.

As they sneaked closer, readying their weapons, they saw that tiny yellow spikes littered their bodies. From their perspective, they could see the giant leaf they tied to their chest. They knew what was under that leaf, a green round spot that was their weak point. A strong enough blow there, and they are done, back down to Tartarus. 

They shared a knowing look and Oliver leaped out, readying his sword, aimed right at the creature’s chest. He saw it at the last second, and swatted Oliver away, and roared, a high-pitched siren-like sound that made all boys grasp their ears. 

They all leaped out, swords out and powers ready. Nico had erected a skeletal army that the creatures could knock back easily, but so many that they would eventually get overwhelmed. He himself was doing great, slicing through the creatures’ chests left and right. 

A high pitched roar. Stab. Fall. Nico smirked. He turned around, a giant nail swooped over his head and he ducked, only to be sliced with another nail. Without hesitation, Nico took the creature down as well, kicking him into the pile with his other teammates. He looked down at the slash in his shirt, spouting thick blood that rolled slowly down his clothes. There was no time to assess the damage. Another giant leg. Another dead body. 

“Hey I think they’re all dead!” Henry called, the rest of the boys cheering. Nico was so focused that he hadn’t even registered that the crowd was thinning and he had just killed the last one. 

Nico’s eyes grew blurry. He smiled at his friends, hoping it was reassuring, and let the darkness take him.

_There's trouble in your eyes. But I pretend that we're okay. I wish that we could compromise, But there's just nothin' left to say_

A commotion above him woke him up. His eyelids felt so heavy though, he just wanted to leave them close but there were people, so many people, some calling his name, some calling to each other. There was no way his three friends could make that much noise, so painstakingly, he opened his eyes. 

There were so many people, rushing around, colors that blended together. His eyes relaxed, unable to focus on a single shape. 

“-ico, Nico? Are you okay?” His eyes settled on a blond figure. Will. He looked scared. His eyes were flickering frantically over his body, bandages in hand. His mouth was open and things seemed to be coming from it. Words. They were called words. He trying to talk to Nico. 

“-orry. Don’t worry. You are going to be fine. You will be fine.” Will’s face said otherwise, though. Despite his calm demeanor, Nico knew him well enough to see through his facade. Will was scared. 

Nico’s hand went up, trying to cup Will’s face for comfort. His lips moved. He tried, really hard, to shape his lips and to talk to him, to ease his comfort. Will seemed to understand, taking his hand, rubbing it. 

“Don’t worry, you will be fine. But don’t try to strain yourself right now. You will be fine.” 

Nico’s hand relaxed. This wasn’t how he envisioned their reunion to be, but the Gods always enjoyed these types of sick powerplay. 

_I’m sorry, Will_

_**The clouds are rolling in, I feel you drifting away. And though my intuition tells me that it's too late that in these conditions, tryin' to bring back the flame is like tryin' to light a match in the rain.** _

Nico had been rushed into the infirmary where he was hooked up to multiple machines that supplied the nutrients and blood he was losing at an alarming rate. One look at the wound and all the healers knew he was losing too much blood to be able to just give him ambrosia. No, this was serious. 

Will took a shaking breath, one that rattled inside his lungs and only made him more desperate. He buried his head in his shaking hands. 

“Will?” A voice made him look up. It was Nico’s friends, but as much as he wanted to hate them, he knew he couldn’t. That was always the risk when it came to missions, every camper knew that. 

They looked scared. Will smiled at them, “What’s up?” 

“We’re so sorry about what happened-” 

“-truly...truly so sorry-” 

“Yeah, we had found the monsters that were causing all the trouble and…” 

“We were fighting the monsters. And right when we were done, he just smiled then blacked out.” 

“Yeah, we didn’t know about his injury.” They hurried, as if it was their fault. Will couldn’t decide if it was their fault or not but one look at them, and he knew he couldn’t blame them. They were just as dirty as Nico was, with bleeding wounds that weren’t taken care of. They were just scared kids who witnessed their friend getting stabbed. _Just like Nico._

“Come on, I’ll treat your injuries.” 

_**I still want to make you love me, make you love me again. Even though my intuition tells me that it's the end. That in these conditions, tryin' to bring back the flame is like tryin' to light a match in the rain.** _

He was alone again. He is somehow always alone. He was alone again, the fear eating at his sanity. 

What if he is seriously hurt? What if he’s paralyzed? What if he’s brain damaged? What if he can’t fight again? That would kill him, not being able to fight. _What if he never woke up?_

He shook his head. No, he couldn’t think like that. He just wanted to hold his hand again, hug his thin shoulder, smell the clean smell he always carried on him, and feel his dark hair between his fingers. He wanted to embrace him, bring that thin hand to his mouth and tell him just three words. 

_I love you._

_**Tryin' to light a match in the rain. Like flyin' a kite in a hurricane. Like ridin' a bike with no air or chain. On a broken road, it's a losing game.** _

“Hurry, Will! We need to hurry!” A rustling of the infirmary woke him up, not from a necessarily restful sleep, though. He bolted to the side of Nico’s bed. His breathing is short and shallow, like something in his chest is blocking him from taking a deeper breath. The struggle to take in and hold even a tiny amount of breath seemed so painful that even Will’s chest felt like it was constricting. Every gasping pained breath hurt his lungs. 

“What are his vitals?” 

“Pulse rate is 120, systolic blood pressure is decreasing, pulse pressure is decreasing, respiratory rate is 30, patient is anxious and confused. Patient is gasping of breath, seems like he has sustained a punctured lung.” 

“Is his chest bandaged?” 

“Yes.” 

Will swore under his breath, “then there’s not much else we can do. He’s not conscious enough for nectar, much less ambrosia.” 

“More fluids?” 

“Don’t you think he already has enough connected to him?” Will snapped, unintentionally. They understood though, it was hard to watch the one you loved in such a state. 

A single tear made it down his cheek and Will made no move to wipe it away. 

_**Tryin' to light a match in the rain. Like flyin' a kite in a hurricane. Like ridin' a bike with no air or chain. On a broken road, it's a losing game.** _

Will felt his boyfriend’s face. It hadn’t even been a few days since they had left but Nico seemed so different. The dirt smeared on his face made him seem younger, like he had played in the dirt. An unconscious Nico felt younger, the wrinkles between his eyes disappeared and his pain washed away. Will liked it and hated it simultaneously. 

Nico’s eyes fluttered, eyelashes batting against his cheeks. Will was up in an instant, staring at the unfocused and blurred look in his unseeing eyes. 

“Nico? Nico? Can you hear me?” Will called, immediately trying to caress his face but stopping mid-stroke. 

Nico’s eyes flitted his way, acknowledging. 

He seemed like he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t move, limbs frozen in place. But his eyes, those deep, dark, expression filled eyes, they spoke novels. 

_I missed you. I’m sorry. You are my everything._ There was so much warmth in them. There was so much they wanted to say, so much that Will wanted to say. But there was only one that lingering in them. 

_I love you._

His eyelids slide over his graying brown orbs and Will feels like he’s plunged into icy cold water, the weight of the bustling room in his ears. 

_**The clouds are rolling in, I feel you drifting away. And though my intuition tells me that it's too late that in these conditions, tryin' to bring back the flame is like tryin' to light a match in the rain.** _

His vitals were down. Will knew what this meant. He’d seen so many demigods with similar vitals and he knew how that turned out. 

Will pulled Nico’s hand up, holding it near his mouth. He kissed it. He put the warm hand to his cheek. Even if Nico was losing blood, his hands were still warm. He couldn’t explain it but they felt like they always did, full of life, always fiddling with something. It grounded him, made him feel safe. 

_Those demigods never opened their eyes._

_**I still want to make you love me, make you love me again. Even though my intuition tells me that it's the end. That in these conditions, tryin' to bring back the flame is like.** _

“Stop.” His clear voice cut through the bustling room, all the commotion working to try to keep his boyfriend’s vitals up. “Stop. It’s….it’s okay. You can all leave.” 

Confused but knowing they needed to listen, they bowed and left, leaving them in an empty room. Will takes another deep, shuttering breath. 

“Hey Nico, hey sunshine.” Nico seemed to flinch towards him. Will took that as a good sign. 

“Hey sweetie, how are you doing?” He scoffed, “I mean, you are lying down with a giant wound so I guess you have seen better days.” He took another breath, looking at Nico. 

“I’m so sorry. I should’ve said it so much earlier. I love you. I love you so much. I love you so much that I wish that I could just reach back in time and slap myself for letting you go on this mission. I wish that I just took those extra days to be with you, to cuddle with you, to hug you, to kiss you, to love you. Maybe then you wouldn’t be here, you wouldn’t have...been there alone.” Will kissed his forehead. 

“It must’ve hurt so much. I promised that I would never leave you, that I would never abandon you, and that we would work all of this love thing out together.” A tear fell onto the bedsheet.

“I…..just love you so much that it feels like my heart is getting ripped out of my chest. Please...please don’t leave me.” 

Painstakingly, Nico’s eyes seemed to flutter open. As if by miracle, his eyes focused and met Will’s. Even as a healer who knew this was not hope, knew that this was not a sign that he was coming back, but he couldn’t help the flutter that his heart gave. As blank and unseeing as his eyes were, they were also knowing, as if acknowledging his words. It wasn’t even close to closure but it was the only thing he had to work with. Will pulled his hand to his face again, thanking him over and over again. 

_Please don’t take my sunshine away._

_**Tryin' to light a match in the rain.** _

“Time of death, 12:23 AM, June 26.” 

A sobbed ripped through the room. Will just stared at Nico, his pale and dirtied face, pale thin hands that no longer held the warmth he was accustomed to, the dirty black hair that was scattered on his forehead, the his dark eyebags a stark contrast against his pale skin. He looked so different, like a doll that has sunken in on his features. 

He dropped to his knees by his boyfriend’s bed, grabbing his hand. Another sob pierced through the room and Will really considered asking that person to stop. He looked around, blindly, still gripping his boyfriend’s hand in a death grip.

It was him. That sound was coming out of his mouth, that horrendous sound, like a cat dying, that high-pitched wail. He dropped to his knees again and brought his hand to his forehead, another wail forcing its way out of his mouth. He brought a hand to his chest as tears rushed down his face. That hand pounded on his chest. It hurt. There was something there that ached, ached so bad that he wanted to get it out. It felt suffocating, like he was flying and falling all at once, like he was too hot and too cold simultaneously. 

He stayed like that, until his shirt was soaked through with tears, until his knees felt like they were weighed down with rocks and needles were shooting up his neck. He stayed in that room, by his boyfriend’s side until he couldn’t tell the difference between night and day, until he couldn’t tell the difference between the healers that visited him, shaking him, telling him that it’s no use. It wasn’t until he had been forcefully put into a chemically-induced sleep. It wasn’t until he had opened his eyes to a plain white room, and he had rolled over, flopping his arm to the side, flopping it onto what would have been his boyfriend’s fluffy black hair, his smooth skin. Nico would have thrown his arm off, laughing while throwing a pillow at him. Instead, his arm flopped onto cold, empty bed sheets. 

That’s when he knew. Nico was truly gone. 

The flame had gone out.


End file.
